Do you think Protestants are closer to Catholics or Orthodox? Why?

There are two sects of Catholics. Romen Catholics and Orthodox Catholics.

That is how you should have worded your question.

Protestants - I have no clue, but I do beleive they don't like having a POPE so that would make them closer to Orthodox Catholics as they don't have a pope.

Protestants do not want to be close to Catholics the whole protest thing (Protest ...ant ) was about errant catholic teaching. Protestants want to be close to Jesus. We left the Catholics because they were drifting away from truth.

So the proper question is who is closer to Jesus. And really even that is like children arguing over which one does daddy love the best. Play nice kids.

"It's complicated." Catholicism emerged from the united then-called Catholic Church in their dispute with the now-called Orthodox over the role of the Pope and an unwarranted and illicit change to the Nicene Creed.

Eastern Orthodoxy holds a sort of middle ground, evident from the reasons Protestantism separated from Rome. Some of the issues are the same (newly raised in the Catholic Church after its split from the East), and some are different, where the Orthodox and Catholics still agree.

It helps to compare all three at once. Held in common are most of the points of the Nicene Creed (http://www.goarch.org/chapel/liturgical_texts/cree...

* belief in the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit

* the virgin birth of Christ, and his crucifixion and resurrection

* the future return of Christ and his everlasting kingdom

Also similar among the three:

* baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

* Sunday observed as the worship day of Christians

Similar between Roman Catholicism (RC) and Eastern Orthodoxy (EO) are

* liturgical worship (some Protestants, also)

* the seven major sacraments (EO term is "mysteries" - and traditionally not limited to seven)

* the change of communion bread and wine into the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ

* male clergy: bishops, priests, and deacons

* the Tradition received from earlier generations is a guide to faith and practice

* the Bible is part of the Tradition

Most Protestants (P), and particularly Evangelicals, have their own tradition and practice

* nonliturgical, spontaneous worship (except some P)

* "ordinances" (not called sacraments) of communion and baptism only

* various beliefs about the presence of Christ in communion - real, spiritual, memorial only

* male or female clergy

* the Bible alone is the guide to faith and practice

EO believes

* the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (Nicene Creed and John 15:26)

* the regional churches are united by meetings of their chief bishops, with no ruling bishop over all.

RC and P believe

* the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (an RC addition to the Creed, although recent Popes do indicate that the Creed is validly said without the "and the Son" addition.)

RC alone believes

* the Pope of Rome should be the presiding bishop over all Christianity -- "universal jurisdiction"

Later dogmas that are required for RC to believe, but are not EO or P dogmas:

* purgatory

* indulgences

* the immaculate conception of Mary

* infallibility of the Pope

Forgive me.

/Orthodox

About Orthodox Christianity:http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith

http://www.antiochian.org/discover http://saintnicholas.ucoz.com/index/intro_to_ortho...

Catholic and Orthodox are very similar to each other. Protestant denominations vary from quite similar (Lutheran, Episcopalian) to so different they barely qualify as Christian (Adventists, fundamentalists of various kinds).

Lutheranism is an offshoot of Catholicism and resembles it in many ways. Calvinism is a religion invented by John Calvin in an attempt to destroy the Catholic Church and bears little resemblance to any form of Christianity.

Protestants arent close to either catholics or orthodox.

Dogmatism.

they are not closer to either of the two. why do you think they split from the catholic Church in the 1500s.

God is everywhere